For Matos, new band takes front and center
Mark Matos has played for years as the frontman for an ever-changing cast, but last year he unveiled “Words of the Knife,” the debut by his new band, Mark Matos & Os Beaches.
In this Q&A, the San Francisco singer-songwriter talks about his new and old bands, his new album live and how hallucinating on acid helped him find his path.
IJ: You’ve been playing in a band for some time, but this is your first truly “band” album. How is that so?
MM: The album was really the catalyst for the band. With Campo, it was collaborators who played in other projects. But Os Beaches is the main thing for everyone in the band. When you play together and tour together you build up a camaraderie and the communication opens up in a way that’s more like a life partner than someone you go out on dates with once in a while.
IJ: Talk about the album’s narrative.
MM: There’s a lot of earthly issues on the album. The narrative is about a relationship with being a hired hand – a working-class person – working his day job and living and making choices to rise up against the apathy of everyday working life and going a little deeper. … That’s the Acid Gospel. It’s a naked person standing in front of you and saying, I’m messed up and I’m moving on.
IJ: You talk about the Acid Gospel on your Web site, but I’m not sure I totally get it. Can you help me put a bow around this?
MM: Acid Gospel is a term I came up with a few years back. I dosed on LSD, it had been years since I’d done it. That night I wrote ‘I Come Broken’ (the closing song on ‘Word of the Knife’). I was on acid in the middle of the street on these railroad tracks at 5 a.m. and things came clear to me that it was time to disband Campo Bravo.
… I want to play beautiful music for people and make cool records and play cool shows. That shouldn’t be like going into it looking at it the way someone does when they’re starting a business. I was starting to get caught up in that. The Acid Gospel is the idea that sometimes all you need is a blanket and a glass of water.
IJ: What’s your blanket and glass of water?
MM: My acoustic guitar, Loretta, is the real blanket for me. And the water is a cup of coffee in the morning. That’s all we need in life, is to be hydrated and warm. You can get those things a lot more easily than headlining Coachella. Of course we want to get to bigger venues but a lot of great artists never get that, and you have to be willing to be that person. I haven’t lost any ambition, but I don’t confuse wanting to be playing in front of 10,000 people at The Gorge with the reality that the real ambition is to be great by being an honest human being, songwriter and musician, and that through that you can break down all the barriers between the art and the artist. That’s the ambition, to do all of that, and maybe be lucky enough to play a huge show at The Gorge, too.